CNN’s Jake Tapper lashed out against President Joe Biden’s speech on the Taliban‘s takeover of Afghanistan, and he insisted the remarks featured mainly “finger-pointing and blame” away from the administration.
After days of criticism for not speaking directly to the nation about the hasty exit of embassy diplomats and others as the Taliban conquered Kabul — in response, the United States has deployed roughly 7,000 troops, including multiple Marine battalions and the Army’s 82nd Airborne — Biden defended his decision to end the war-fighting mission in Afghanistan during an address at the White House.
“You’ve been listening to president Biden speaking at the White House, forced to talk about the worsening crisis in Afghanistan, forced to speak to the nation after the calamity of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan,” Tapper said. “The president stated that he stands squarely behind the decision he made to withdraw all U.S. Forces from Afghanistan even though he has in fact been forced to send roughly 6,000 back in.”
BIDEN: ‘I STAND SQUARELY BEHIND MY DECISION’ ON AFGHANISTAN
“The president said that the buck stopped with him, but, in fact, the speech was full of finger-pointing and blame, especially for the Afghans,” he continued, while lashing out against the administration’s failure to remove Afghan translators and other U.S. allies prior to the collapse.
Tapper also criticized the president for failing to accept responsibility for the crisis after he spearheaded the exodus of U.S. forces to coincide with his deadline of Sept. 11, which is the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
“Mr. Biden also focused on the larger decision to end the U.S. presence in Afghanistan, that was, in fact, his larger focus, whether or not the U.S. should continue to be there, he did not really get into or accept any blame for the catastrophic exit that we have been watching on television in the last several days,” he said.
MSNBC host Nicole Wallace insisted Biden’s speech would be well received by the majority of the U.S., though not by journalists who have been covering the developments for the past 20 years.
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“Ninety-five percent of the American people will agree with everything [Biden] just said,” she said. “Ninety-five percent of the press covering this White House will disagree.”
Biden is scheduled to return to Camp David, the White House announced at the end of his speech. He did not take questions from reporters after his remarks.
